Change default Python version from 2.4 to 2.6

I'm wanting to use some newer software that requires Python 2.6, and we currently have both 2.4 and 2.6 installed on our dedicated CentOS server, which looks like this:

$ which python
/usr/local/bin/python
$ which python2.6
/usr/bin/python2.6
$ which python2.4
/usr/local/bin/python2.4
$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/py*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      81 Aug  9  2007 /usr/local/bin/pydoc
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3394082 Aug  9  2007 /usr/local/bin/python
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3394082 Aug  9  2007 /usr/local/bin/python2.4

How can I switch it to start using 2.6 as the default python?

Solution 1:

As root:

ln -sf /usr/bin/python2.6 /usr/local/bin/python

This will make a symbolic link from /usr/local/bin/python --> /usr/bin/python2.6 (replacing the old hardlink).

Solution 2:

As an alternative, you can also just add an alias for the command "python" in the your bash shell's startup file.

so open the startup file: emacs ~/.bashrc

in the editor u append: alias "python" "python2.6"

and restart the shell.